With all bad news on the tape now having a suitable "explanation", be it a prior president, a tropical storm, the weather being too hot, the weather being too cold, the weather being just right, but never, ever someone actually taking blame for the fact that life is what happens when corporate CEOs (and sovereign presidents) are busy making "priced to perfection" plans. So it is with what is now a confirmed flop of a Black Friday, which according to ShopperTrak saw sales drop by nearly 2% to $11.2 from 2011, which in turn was a 6.6% gain over 2010 (and would be revised to far lower once all the refunds and exchanges to cash took place in the two weeks later). This occurred despite a 3.5% increase in retail foot traffic to 307.7 million store visits. The nominal drop in retail sales also occurred despite a nearly 1% increase in the total US population over last Thanksgiving, and a 2% Y/Y inflation. But fear not: the ad hoc excuse for this "surprising" loss in purchasing power is already handy: it is all Black Thursday's fault, or the latest idiotic attempt by retailers to cannibalize their own future sales by diluting the exclusivity of Black Friday, and which will force all retailers to follow the sovereigns in a race to the bottom, as soon every day will be the equivalent of Black Friday. But at least retailers have another 364 years worth of excuses for the conceivable future to excuse any and all store weakness. Next year: it's all Black Wednesday's fault.

Quick summary of the article: The mainstream media and business executives who supported the Royal Idiot are finding it more and more difficult to explain away the miserable economic failure that inevitably results from socialism.

How funny. Everyone was saying that Black Friday had the highest sales in history and now this author is saying otherwise. I guess we just need to wait and see what the rest of the season sales are. I know Monday will probably be a huge day for on-line retailers. I guess you can find the opposite said about everything.

While our family may not be representative of other middle class ones, we normally spent close to $15,000 during the entire holiday season in past years which included a week long ski trip, gifts for families, friends, business clients and two house parties. This year is stay at home and total spent will be closer to $500 including food for a Christmas dinner with family and close friends. All the shopping is done, most of it on-line unless I had a great coupon for a small local store, and gifts wrapped. Any energy remaining will be used to bake cookies and try to figure out how my clients and my business can remain profitable in the coming year.

4
posted on 11/25/2012 11:32:08 AM PST
by Grams A
(The Sun will rise in the East in the morning and God is still on his throne.)

COSTELLO: I want to talk about the unemployment rate in America.
ABBOTT: Good Subject. Terrible Times. It’s 7.8%.

COSTELLO: That many people are out of work?
ABBOTT: No, that’s 14.7%.

COSTELLO: You just said 7.8%.
ABBOTT: 7.8% Unemployed.

COSTELLO: Right 7.8% out of work.
ABBOTT: No, that’s 14.7%.

COSTELLO: Okay, so it’s 14.7% unemployed.
ABBOTT: No, that’s 7.8%.

COSTELLO: WAIT A MINUTE. Is it 7.8% or14.7%?
ABBOTT: 7.8% are unemployed. 14.7% are out of work.

COSTELLO: IF you are out of work you are unemployed.
ABBOTT: No, Obama said you can’t count the “Out of Work” as the unemployed.
You have to look for work to be unemployed.

COSTELLO: BUT THEY ARE OUT OF WORK!!!
ABBOTT: No, you miss his point.

COSTELLO: What point?
ABBOTT: Someone who doesn’t look for work can’t be counted with those who
look for work. It wouldn’t be fair.

COSTELLO: To whom?
ABBOTT: The unemployed.
COSTELLO: But they are ALL out of work.
ABBOTT: No, the unemployed are actively looking for work. Those who are out
of work gave up looking and if you give up, you are no longer in the ranks
of the unemployed.

COSTELLO: So if you’re off the unemployment roles that would count as less
unemployment?
ABBOTT: Unemployment would go down. Absolutely!

In-store sales on Thursday increased 71 percent, according to Chase Paymentech, a top credit-card processor.

Over the last three years, Americans have paid down their debts to the tune of $636 billion. Gasoline, electric and natural gas prices are decreasing.

Consumer confidence is on the rise and those surveyed this month by the Credit Union National Association and the Consumer Federation of America said they are more willing to open their wallets. Twelve percent of those polled said they expected to spend more, the highest level since 2007; 38 percent said they would spend less.

Another example of: who are ou going to believe? The media or your own lying eyes?

I worked Friday so I didn’t see anything. However, on Saturday I went out and could not believe that I found a parking space relatively close to the mall. That has never happened before during this time of the year. Normally I have to pack a lunch to go to the mall because of how far away I am parked. lol.

When consumers catch on that prices have been raised, not lowered, on “Black Friday” merchandise, expect this gimmick to lose its charm.

Other than three or four big screen TVs or iPads or computers used as bait, stores have few legitimate bargains. After hiring extra sales people and security guards for the mobs of “Looky-lous”, retailers will probably have lost money.

Over the past few years, I’ve noticed the Black Friday sales reports that come out in the media are always described as blockbuster increases and upticks, but come January, when referenced, the same media refers back to them as below-par and overall disappointments.

If Black Friday itself was down because more people were out on Thursday why not just total Thursday and Friday sales and compare to that for previous years? If they’re inventive they could also do some adjustment for historical Thursday business. Maybe basic math is just too hard for some people.

27
posted on 11/25/2012 12:54:26 PM PST
by ken in texas
(I was taught to respect my elders but it keeps getting harder to find any.)

$500 sound about right for what we’ve already been spending over the past couple of years.

We have an excellent collection of Christmas stuff for entertaining- decorations from Italy, Czech, Germany- ornaments from the same, tableware, CDs. A great supermarket with a gourmet kitchen for food. An annual concert at a Cath Church with traditional music. And bonus, no OB voters in that mix.

A ski trip, Tour of Italy, Christmas in Paris - memory bank for now. Wouldn’t trade them, but this works.

Friends, food, Faith.

It works, sorry retailers.

I send my extended family a local food treat, $30 per family. It adds up. Sorry, retailers. I’d rather be in Benghazi than at Walmart on “Black Friday”.

On Friday I had to go to Tractor Supply and then on to WalMart. Tractor Supply had a much fuller parking lot than Walmart did. All of the registers were going at full speed.

At Walmart, there were two of the Grocery style lanes open and three of the 20 items or less registers going. And even then I only had one person ahead of me. Now I must say that our Local Walmart is in a small town and not a city, but it is still next to the major highway and was not busy at all.

In my quick walk-through Walmart I can also report that the Sporting Goods was the busiest department of all. The slowest? Toys, followed by Health and beauty.

Other than three or four big screen TVs or iPads or computers used as bait, stores have few legitimate bargains. After hiring extra sales people and security guards for the mobs of Looky-lous, retailers will probably have lost money.

^ This..

34
posted on 11/25/2012 1:37:06 PM PST
by PogySailor
(Barack Obama just won the right to be the Captain of the Titanic)

One can only hope next year’s “black” days will shrink by the number of those A$$e$ featured on the videos looking like ravishing, amoral farm animals fighting for toasters. Oh, how the international humanists who created them, love to laugh and sneer at them.

Can you imagine being featured around the globe, tearing at other people to git yo bad American self a trinket in the name of Jesus Christ’s birthday party? Someone is laughing his A$$ off and it’s not Jesus.

I saw NO traffic to speak of on Rt. 110 between Farmingdale and Huntington LY NY on “black friday”. None. This is a major “corridor” on LI. Never happened before, rather traffic is gridlocked on black fridays previous.

36
posted on 11/25/2012 2:09:20 PM PST
by TalBlack
(Evil doesn't have a day job.)

Wal-Mart started this nonsense followed by Target and then others. They are going to kill off the “specialness” of Black friday if they don’t stop.

Employees no longer have a holiday and people are starting to think “why go out at all?” In their mind, the sales don’t end and no reason to rush out and buy.

Also re-electing the Kenyan killed it for many, including myself. We cut our total holiday spending to $500 for the whole season. With an expected $3800 in new taxes on us next year with the tax increases, I am not in a spending frame of mind.

39
posted on 11/25/2012 5:27:38 PM PST
by packrat35
(Admit it! We are almost ready to be called a police state!)

I would think lowering the slope of the sales curve by a slight extension would be helpful.

This

I work for the online business unit of a very large retailer. Our (online) peaks were certainly not as high this year compared to last, but our online revenue is up over last year. I'm looking at the real-time graphs right now and we are generating more revenue this year vs. last, for today, the week and the month. I have no idea how much if any of this is being taken from the brick and mortar sales, but my area is up.

And as far as lowering the slopes, amen brother. We test our site for peak loads and it's much easier to sustain a moderate load for a long period than it would be to handle all our sales volume in a single day. Cheaper too, probably to the tune of several million in hardware alone. In our case, we can do both as we tested to around 400% of what we actually saw on Black Friday (thanks to offloading a significant portion to Thanksgiving evening).

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